As the dust settles on the Barrie Baycats' sixth straight Intercounty Baseball League championship, the same can be said for the career of one of the franchise's most beloved players.
Kyle DeGrace, 33, has announced his retirement after 15 seasons in the IBL and seven championship rings.
Earlier this morning, the veteran catcher told BarrieToday that while he has learned to never say never, he is looking toward allowing his torn rotator cuff, sprained Achilles heel and other injuries to properly heal.
“I thought last year was going to be it, but then we all went to Adam Hawes’ wedding in the Caribbean and (Baycats manager) Angus (Roy) talked me back in after a couple of drinks,” DeGrace said. “This time, there has been a couple of injuries. I’ve got some things in my personal life that have changed and work is always an issue. It is time.”
DeGrace played in only 25 of Barrie's 37 regular-season games this season, but he played in all 14 playoff games. In the post-season, he finished with a .339 average, three homeruns, 20 hits and 18 RBI.
While DeGrace admits he can still picture himself playing in a very limited role, should he have the itch to return to the dugout when the 2020 season starts, the plan is to hang up the cleats.
BarrieToday also asked whether being a manager in the IBL is in the cards.
“Manage in the IBL? Absolutely not, zero interest in that,” DeGrace said. “I’m not doing that, but I’ll be involved in baseball in some capacity, I’m sure. I’ve been playing it my whole life.”
DeGrace entered the IBL in 2005 with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs and won a title there in 2007 before coming to Barrie in 2012. He helped the Baycats become one of the most dominant franchises in the league’s century-long history.
“I grew up 10 minutes from Christie Pits, so baseball was a way of life. Every day down there, we’d be playing,” he said. “Playing in Barrie, though, have been the best years of my career. You can’t beat playing for 'Millsie' (team president David Mills) and alongside my best friends.”
While the Baycats were racking up wins at a record pace and securing league titles, fans around the league were becoming frustrated and voicing that displeasure in social-media groups.
DeGrace always saw the comments and shook his head is disbelief.
“They would type things about being time to break the team up and send players around the league to make it fair, as if we were buying a team every year,” he said. “You want to see my wedding photos? The photos of all those guys in the background, all the family get-togethers we attended with each other. We weren’t some baseball team put together.
"We really are a family and extremely close to each other," DeGrace added. "The core of the Baycats had been playing together long before the comments started on chat groups and we’ll be friends long after them, as well.”
The longtime catcher wasted no time when asked what his favourite memory was with the Barrie team.
“Winning that first of the run in 2014 against London, easy,” DeGrace said. “We had lost a bunch in the finals against the Brantford Red Sox and finally beat them in the semis to face London.
"We knew, as soon as beat Brantford, there was no way in hell London was beating us in the finals and we swept them," he added. "We absolutely knew that year we had an unbelievable team.”
First-baseman Jon Waltenbury also announced his retirement from the squad after returning to the Baycats this past season.
So there could be some changes in Baycats land.
DeGrace said that while he isn’t sure what lies ahead for the team, he thinks if there many more announcements, fans could see a complete overhaul of the champs.
“I don’t know, you’d have to talk to the guys about what they’re doing, but personally I think Angus is only still there because he loves us,” DeGrace said jokingly of the longtime manager and former Baycats pitcher.
“If some of the core of this team start hanging them up, you’ll likely see a lot of them follow and that will lead to a huge turnover," DeGrace added. "That said, there’s some great players (in the organization) here and management is so dedicated to winning, it's not like it would be a huge disaster.”
